Party Week - Giveaway #2

This giveaway is now closed.



Giveaway #2 sneak peek: (because facebook is dumb, or I am lol, and it only posts my first picture)

But first, exciting news today - I'm doing my first guest posting today over at Type A Decorating.  Go check out my Christmas Planner post (or come back tomorrow and I'll share it here.)

Now on to today's giveaway.  My mom has generously given me one of her super cute headbands that she was working on here.

You know, it's kind of hard to photograph these headbands without modeling them. I tried about 5 different "poses" to get something that looked sort of normal. :)

So if you want to win this cute, mustard yellow knitted headband, here's what you need to do to enter:

1. Be a follower!  Sometimes it's good to follow. :)  Leave me a comment and let me know you are following. If you are already a follower, leave me a comment and tell me.

Extra entries:

2.  Like The Brown Eyes Have It on Facebook.

Spread the word about my giveaway week:  

3.  Post about it on your blog, link to your blog in a comment.

4.  Tweet it

5.  Post it on Facebook using @The Brown Eyes Have It so I'll see it, too.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry letting me know what you've done.

Five chances to win! Giveaway will end Saturday, Dec.17 and winners will be announced Monday, Dec 19.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate each and every one of my readers!  Come back tomorrow for another great freebie.

Other giveaways this week:

Giveaway #1

Giveaway #3
Giveaway #4
Giveaway #5
Giveaway #6
Giveaway #7

PARTY Time! Giveaway #1

This giveaway is now closed.



I DID IT!! I MADE MY GOAL OF 100 FOLLOWERS!  Yeah, I'm so excited (can you tell!)  A few months ago, I was at a crossroad - do I quit blogging (just my family/personal blog), because I haven't been keeping it up, or do I focus more on the crafts and everyday stuff I do and make it a public blog.  I decided to give it a try.  I had no idea how much work it is.  I mean I thought, "I'm doing this stuff every day so how hard could it be."  But the reality of posts two or three times a week, linking to parties every day and all that goes with that, trying to figure out this whole other language as I try to tweak my blog, it's work.  However, I'm loving it!!  So to watch that follower number increase was awesome.  I can't tell you how excited I was to have my first follower that wasn't my mom or sisters (not that my mom and sisters aren't awesome, of course they were the first to sign up.)  So THANK YOU to all of you that actually read this blog, I really am honored because I know I have some serious competition for your attention and mostly your time. 

Let's celebrate!  I have a week full of giveaways planned, a new giveaway every day.  So spread the news, come back and check it out and win some Christmas presents for YOU.

Today's giveaway:
A leather band wrap watch.  Sorry, I just couldn't get a really good picture of this, but it's a brown leather band with a brushed nickel face.  It also has an adjustable chain to make it various lengths.

So how to enter:

1. Be a follower!  Sometimes it's good to follow. :)  Leave me a comment and let me know you are. If you are already a follower, leave me a comment and tell me.

Extra entries:

2.  Like The Brown Eyes Have It on Facebook.

Spread the word about my giveaway week:  

3.  Post about it on your blog

4.  Tweet it

5.  Post it on Facebook

Leave a comment for each entry letting me know what you've done.

Five chances to win! Giveaway will end Saturday, Dec.17 and winners will be annouced Monday, Dec 19.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate each and every one of my readers!  Come back tomorrow for another great freebie.

Come see my other giveaways this week:

Giveaway #2

Giveaway #3

Giveaway #4 

Giveaway #5

Giveaway #6

Giveaway #7

Wedding Gifts - Wood Name Signs

Last week I shared with you this cute baby gift I made for my cousin.  I must be on a name kick right now because as I was contemplating what to give/make for a couple of weddings we were celebrating this weekend, everything I kept thinking of involved their new names.  Then I got this email from GroopDealz (love them!) and knew I wanted to make this:

I remembered I had a couple other wood signs that "spoke" to me at the thrift store.  Here's my beauties in all their glory.

Check out the skill in that wood burning!  That gave me a little trouble.  The other board had a super, high-gloss finish on it plus a few holes.  So they took a little work, but it was worth it. I filled holes, filled the whole "let freedom ring" and bells, sanded, and sanded some more.  Then I painted them both black.  The first board looked great, the freedom board, not so good.  I could still see all the bells and words through the paint.  So some mod podge and paper to the rescue.  That covered it all up.  Did a little more sanding and added vinyl letters and their names.  I LOVE how the first board turned out!  The second one I was in a hurry, even using the blow dryer to get the mod podge to dry before I wrapped it.  It didn't turn out so well, the paper didn't match as well as I'd liked and I didn't get the name on it over the line between the papers.  Grrr!  Oh, well, I hope it isn't too noticeable.

  Anyway, here's the finished products:

Great news! I made it to 100 followers so that means it's time for a P.A.R.T.Y!! I'll be having giveaways every day for the next week.  Come check them out!

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Thrifty Jewelry Christmas Gifts - Part 2

From my post the other day here, you know part of our Thanksgiving weekend was spent gettin' crafty.  My sisters, sisters-in-law, Mom, daughters and niece have an annual tradition of a big craft day.  We spread out all over my mom's big table and talked, laughed, ate chocolate cinnamon bears and the occasional piece of pie, and just had a great time together.  These are some of what we made:

Today I'm going to show you what else we did.  My sister Kristen (with help from SIL Alana) made this really fun interchangeable necklace.

 You can change the bottom row of beads to match your outfit, and it's adjustable from 18" long to around 30" long.  Cool!  The initial cost was a little more expensive, I think it was about $10 for just the chain, but then each bead strand cost only around $5-$10 depending on the beads used.  Still not bad considering each necklace is totally unique to you.

Supplies:
12” of nicer chain
12” of extender chain
4 jump rings
3 lobster clasps
beads
wire
crimp beads

Let me start by explaining the difference between "nicer chain" and "extender chain".  The "nicer chain" is the chain that you'll see mostly.  Kristen bought some cuter, bigger, twisted looped chain that was more expensive.  The "extender chain" was the cheapest stuff they had, just plain regular chain, but it's mostly in the back, so you don't really see it.

Split the nicer chain into two 6" pieces.  Then attach the extender chain with a jump ring at each end.  Now Alana and Kristen were debating over which way to do this next part.  Either you can split the extender chain also and attach a lobster clasp at one end, this is the professional, store-bought looking way.  OR leave the extender chain in one piece, just attaching the lobster clasp on it so when you shorten the chain, you'll have a loop of chain in back instead of a dangling piece.  Either way is fine, it's all in back anyway so it doesn't really matter.  Both ways look good, not cutting the chain is just easier.  Then add a jump ring at either end of the nice chain.  Now your basic chain is done, you're ready to attach the bead string.

This is the fun part.  Make about a 6" long string of beads.  Cut a piece of stringing wire about 8" long, and string on whatever beads you like.  At the ends, string on your crimp bead and lobster clasp, then loop the wire back down and through the crimp bead.  Crimp it.  Do this for as many different bead strands as you like.  This makes a very fun, unique gift.

Now on to the second necklace.  Mine was much easier. :)  I made this necklace which was inspired by this post:

Supplies:
Christmas bead garland - $5 at Michaels and I made 4 necklaces with few beads leftover
Jersey knit material

First of all, I cut a piece of material 2 yards long, but only about 3/4" wide.  You could probably piece it together, I just happen to have a scrap piece that long.  After it's cut, grab one end and start stretching it.  It'll curl in onto itself and make a sort of rope/chord.  My 2 yards of fabric now stretched to 3 yards.  Cut off on end at about 22" for your second string.  This is made in two parts.

Left side - stretched, Right side - not stretched

Then start stringing.  Wrapping the ends with a little tape makes it so much easier.

Slide a bead on down to the middle of your long string, and tie a knot on either side.  Then string another bead, and tie a knot.  I strung 13 beads on the bottom strand and 11 on the second strand.  End each strand with a knot.  Then you'll attach them together with a little hot glue.  Since the material curls in on itself, I uncurled the bottom string, put just a dab of hot glue in it and put the short strand inside it, letting it curl back around it.

Cut off the extra from the inside/short strand, and slide on another bead over the top of the glued part.  Then tie another knot and you're done.  Word of caution, after you're done, it might look a little crooked in places and not lay just right, just wiggle it around and play with it a minute and you'll getting looking right.  DON'T stretch it more, though, not that we had any experience with that (but it wasn't me).  However, if you do happen to stretch it out, we found out that you can undo the whole thing, untieing each knot and do it over again. :)  This is really quick, maybe 30 min, really cheap, and another great gift idea.

Hope you enjoyed our crafting session as much as we did.  My family is the best! We all get along really well and have a lot of fun together.  Love you all!

Help me reach and exceed my goal of 100 followers! I'm so close!

Thrifty Jewelry Christmas Gifts

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year.  It's a good long weekend full of family, fun, and good food without all the other stressors that come with so many other holidays.  I love it!  This year we ate with Bill's family and the next day we hung out with my family.

We have a tradition now for the past few years that the girls (actually, nephews have been known to be involved before, too, making stuff for girlfriends) have a big crafting day, either after the food is put away or the next after everyone wakes up from late night/early morning shopping.  My sister, Leslie, and I had been checking out blogs, scouring Pinterest for this year's fun idea.  We never really came up with one big idea, we all kind of did our own things.  So I'm sharing this with you today to give you some fairly quick, all pretty easy, and mostly pretty cheap gift ideas you can whip up for those on your Christmas shopping list.

At my mom's house in the middle of the crafting L to R: my daughter, Cheyenne; sister-in-law, Alana; sister, Kristen; niece, Ashtyn, Mom, nephew, Mitchell, applying to college; sister-in-law, Geri; sister, Leslie; and daughter, Natalie.  Not a great picture, with two big windows it's kind of hard to take good pictures here.

I'll share a little of what we were all working on.  My mom has made great headbands and hats for many of the girls and she was busy finishing flowers and attaching them and stuff.  (I'm giving a headband away when I hit 100!)

Leslie and Ashtyn made this really cute necklace.  Here is the tutorial from Little Miss Momma, she did such a good job with it, why redo a good thing. :)  Here's my tip for this one, just from watching Leslie, the actual assembly of the necklace was fairly quick, but she already had a bajillion circles cut out.  So put on a good show and start cutting first.

Geri, scored a great deal on her Black Friday shopping and got a whole bunch of Swarovski crystal beads and charms for $1 a box.  So she got busy making a bunch of bracelets.  She just strung them on stretchy chord, tied them off with a square knot, and put a little super glue on the knot to hold it tight.  I believe she also made a pair of earrings to match by gluing a charm to some posts she bought.

Kristen (with help from Alana the jewelry making expert!) was busy making a really cute interchangeable necklace.  Come back on Friday and I'll show you how to do it.

I was being very frustrated making a leather wrap bracelets like Want to Get Crafty's here.  My advice - DON'T use sinew for the thread, it's way too sticky, and when you're working with a piece that's around 10-12' (yes feet!) long, it's a pain in the butt!  Then after I finally got it all done, I didn't like it, so that's in the redo pile.  This one was not so quick, but that was mostly because I was trying to figure it out for the first time.  Once I got the idea of how to do it, it went pretty quickly, and if I used waxed thread instead of the sinew it would have been even faster.  I'll redo it and let you know.

  However, I also helped several of my family make this bead necklace.  Again, come back on Friday and I'll show you what I did. (Part 2 here.) 

I hope this gives you some fun ideas for Christmas gifts.  It really is fun and so satisfying to say, "Yah, I made that!"  What is on your Christmas crafting list?

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Thrifty, Easy, Name Sign

Ahhhh, what a great weekend!  I love Thanksgiving!  The food is great, but being in the company of family all weekend is the best!  As part of the weekend's fun, my cousin and his wife and brand new baby came up to visit my aunt and uncle who live next door to my parents.  We went over and visited and I got lots of new baby holding time.  It was great!  Here's the gift I made for them, that I think turned out really cute.

Here's my thrifty tip for you - I found the wood at my local thrift store.  Cost me a whole 75 cents!  As I was walking through the store one day, I was laughing at all the plaques and signs that had been really cute decor in someone's house at some time.  I thought of how many signs had come and gone in my house and I had sent here to die, also.  I picked one up, reminiscing at how I had once had something similar when I started really looking at the size and shape, the nicely routered edges, and how easy it would be to just sand a little or slap some new paint on it and it would be a fresh canvas.  Now I had a whole new set of eyes as I looked around, not at what it was, but at what it could be.  I know, I know, some of you are experts at this and easily see the possibilities of someone else's trash, but this was a whole new experience for me.  I grabbed a piece of wood, a little sanding, some wood filler (of the nice wood burning/etching) and it will be perfect for a wedding present I need to make. I found a totally plain piece of wood, just need to sand the super high gloss finish off of it and another wedding present for this weekend.

Then I stumbled across this piece above.  I don't know what it originally was, there was nothing on it, just wood slats.  It needed a little glue to hold one of the slats that was starting to fall off, but a very easy fix.  At the moment, I thought a Halloween or fall decoration, "trick or treat" or some other 3 word phrase.  So I grabbed it, took it home, and it sat waiting for inspiration to strike again.  Halloween came too quickly, and thankfully it never got painted.  Fast forward a month, and I wanted to make a present for this cute new baby boy, who's nursery is NOT babyish I was told.  I remembered this wood slat piece.  My sister Leslie was visiting, so she helped me come up with this cute design all while playing a little "Dance Central 2".  :)  Using my cricut (and my new gypsy!) and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, I cut the "L" at 11" height, and the name at 1 1/2" height.  Here's my second thrifty tip for you - when making stencils for painting, etching, or anything like that, use contact paper.  A lot of the tutorials I've read use vinyl, but why use your good, expensive stuff when you can get a giant roll of contact paper for a few dollars.  It cuts like vinyl - I use all the same settings, but it's stickier so seals better with paint or etching cream, meaning cleaner lines.  Oh, another thrifty tip - instead of using transfer paper, I use blue painters tape for transferring vinyl (or contact paper.)  It picks it up easily, can be reused several times, and is much cheaper.  The only downside is you can't see through it.  Anyway, I laid out all the templates and painted them with ivory craft paint.  I just used a sponge brush and "pounced" (real technical term) all over it.  Later, I pulled off all the stencils and started sanding.  I wanted an "old, distressed" look to it.  I sanded through the paint, and then started on the actual wood and I really liked the look it gave.  When I was all done, I gave it a good wipe down with a damp rag to clean it all up. 

The final verdict, I think she really liked it and said my cousin would love it!  Yeah!!  And baby Luke is just adorable, I just wish he lived closer so I could snuggle him more often.

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Doctored Cake Mix & Cheyenne's Birthday

As I mentioned in this post, my daughter Cheyenne turned 16 a couple weeks ago.  We had both sets of grandparents over for presents and cake and ice cream.  Since she is now allowed to date, her dad and I gave her a "promise" ring - a promise to us ring, to remember who she is, make wise decisions and to stay pure and clean.  I think she liked it.  However, I don't think that was her favorite present.  Bill's brother, Uncle Thomas, loves to tease Cheyenne.  He loves to give her presents like a John Deer tractor poster or calendar, or a TinkerBell calendar, usually wrapped up with Hannah Montana wrapping paper or Jonas Brothers cards.  This year was no exception, and topped everything he'd ever given her before.  He gave her a tote box and inside this box was all the ingredients (and I mean everything!) to make HIS favorite cookies with instructions that she had until the expiration date on the milk to make them for him.  Little does he know that when he returns from his honeymoon (he just got married this past weekend, yeah!) he'll have a plate of beautiful cookies waiting for him - with a little pepper or some other special ingredient in them. Oh, and Cheyenne's wedding present to him, a beautiful, bright green John Deer tractor poster for their new house. :)

I'm not a big party person, I'm too cheap. :)  My parties here and here are fairly low-key and pretty simple and easy.  Now these two fabulous parties here and here are my sister, Leslie's, awesome creations.  See, she loves to plan a party, me, not so much.  So back to Cheyenne, 16 is one of those big years and we told her she could have a party.  She wasn't sure she wanted to, which friends should she invite, it costs too much, it's too much work for you, mom, and on and on.  I told her 16 is a time to celebrate so quit your whining we're having a party! ;)  Let me tell you though, a 16 year old party is so much easier to plan than a 6 year old party.  I decorated our bonus room a little, bought a bunch of pizza, and left them to have fun watching movies, playing xbox, ping-pong and pool.  They all had a great time, I think, and there was only one small casualty of a broken pool cue (thank goodness it was just the little one.) 

Now if you've stayed with me this long, I'll share my favorite cake recipe.  I made this once for the family party and then again as cupcakes for her friend party.  I'm not a beautiful cake maker.  It takes me too long and I don't have enough patience for it.  I've adopted the motto that it's not what's on the outside, but what's on the inside that matters.  So true in life, and even more so for cake! :)  See above for my fancy decorating, well, actually Natalie did the writing (that's how Cheyenne used to sing "Happy Birthday"), I only frosted.  I'm as busy as the next mom, and sometimes a box cake is just faster.  However, my husband is somewhat of a food snob and can always tell a box cake from a "real" cake, and then complains.  So when my friend, Hilary, shared her "doctored cake mix" recipe, I was all over it.  This is so good and very moist, unless my husband sees the box (which I usually quickly bury in the garbage) he can't tell it's a box mix.

Basic "doctored mix" Recipe
-Hilary Muckleroy

Prepare cake mix as per package directions.  In addition to this add:
1 egg
1 c. flour
250 ml (or 8oz.) sour cream or yogurt
1 c. white sugar
1/3 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla or other suited flavoring

Use any flavor cake mix, yogurt, or flavoring.

Bake according to box directions.  If baking a 9x13" pan, it will be more full, so it will take a little extra time.  Or, you can make a 9x13" pan (normal fullness) and 6 cupcakes.  I saved the 6 extra cupcakes in the freezer for later. 

Use your imagination when it comes to flavor combos.  I've done white cake and chocolate cake with strawberry yogurt, both good.  I wonder what white cake with key lime yogurt or boston creme pie would taste like?  Maybe chocolate with butter flavoring?  Chocolate with orange yogurt and orange flavoring?  The possibilities are endless and now I'm getting hungry. :)  What else could I try?  What are your favorite flavor combinations?

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December is not far away! Can you help me reach my goal of 100 follower by Dec. 1?